• Ruby Simpson
  • Jessica Simpson
  • Fallen Comrade
Jul – Aug 2025

Smbdy call Olivia Newton John!

A boppin blog detailing the travels of three gods and their comrade returning to Greece Read more
  • Oh hot damn Allegra’s gone!

    August 4 in Greece ⋅ 🌙 27 °C

    Welcome one, welcome all, back to Mount Olympus, may you catch the goats that roam freely through life’s path!

    I write this as we happily listen to the bopping tunes of the Pet Shop Boys (we all love West End Girls and have decided it is the og Uptown Girl despite the latter being the older song. 1983, as dad correctly said; he was applauded.)

    Anyway!

    This morning, I once again woke really happy but still burdened by the knowledge that I had to write the blog (which I didn’t do until late).

    But the knowledge of a task ways heavy on the mind of a procrastinator.

    Despite this, when dad came in to wake me up, I was in a good mood. Dad stared at me for like seven seconds, I stared back. He then was like, “morning roo”. It was funny.

    It really doesn’t sound funny, which is t r u l y a blow to my reputation as the funniest blogger around. Barring mum of course.

    Anyway, I got up in a cheery mood, and much like yesterday I was being a “goofball” (still Lily’s words).

    Immediately I was betrayed. You see, yesterday we had bought milk, I told Allegra to replace the almond milk Olivia had grabbed with coconut milk, that I like, with Tate’s agreement, so that I could eat the weetabix.

    But ALLEGRA that damn fool did NOT grab coconut milk and she DARED tell me that I never told her to grab coconut milk!!

    She is the worst ever and I was forced to not have weetabix because I dislike soja milk. Not to be confused with soja vanille which is the only milk I drink.

    Very different. Veryyyy different.

    Who am I kidding.

    Anyway, I got my retribution for Allegra soon enough. You’ll find out more later on in the day! *cackles evilly*

    But then I made toast so ultimately I was happy. I do love toast! And today, two minutes was the perfect time for this toast.

    I also told dad about how the numbers on the toaster mean the time they are heated for, not the level they are heated (1 is one minute, 2 is two minutes and so on), and the man did not believe me. Stubborn dad.

    Mum then told us it was 9:29 and that we aimed to leave at 10. After a cacophony of scoffs, we did very little, because really, it was an ungodly time to be awake in the final days of our holidays, and then mum and dad got a bit antsy, rightfully so, so we snapped into action.

    I was mainly happy because dad turned to me, said, “I have a question” in a very serious tone. I put down the sunscreen and turned to him. He paused as if to wonder how to phrase his question, and said, “who uses typewriters anyway?”

    I was so joyously happy that I giggled with laughter. For those who don’t know, that is a Taylor Swift lyric. And it was so random and yet so funny.

    But finally we were ready and out the door! The car ride was chill as can be, very relaxed, and with little trouble we made it to our destination, aka the Acropolis of Lindos! It’s this cool sort of temple on a hill overlooking the sea in Lindos!

    We had to walk up a hill to get there, and this including walking through the tourist town. As we walked, I saw the most gorgeous skirt I have ever seen, on a mannequin, it was just layers of different colour and pattern materials, and I fell in love, but I didn’t say anything, so we walked past it as I cast wistful looks, as if it were Romeo and I, Juliet.

    Skirt, skirt, wherefore art thou, skirt?

    Once we made it out of the shop, I could no longer hold my tongue about the one true love of my life, so I said to mum, “I saw the skirt love of my life” and mum sighed and rolled her eyes knowingly, and said “was it the multicolored one on the mannequin?” And I was like, “you know me so well”.

    To my absolute delight, mum said we could get it when we go back!

    But first we sweated our way up the path. I have never sweated more in my life than I did on this day. Sorry for that fun info for you.

    But seriously, I didn’t dare take off my hat and expose my hair; it was bad.

    We had to queue for maybe five minutes, which we have no problem with, as Brits, but as we stood in the queue, some guy who had gone in was loudly telling the queue, “yeah, get ready to LOSE twenty euros. Each!”

    Men. No culture.

    It also was free for under twenty five, so that’s pretty good.

    Although they did request ID to prove that you were under twenty five, and that’s when tragedy struck.

    As I took my purse out of my bigger purse, I dropped some tan cabs into the floor! This could have been a tragedy: they are all my babies.

    Thank goodness Tate picked them all up for me.

    Anyway, the temple itself was awesome, I love archaeology and such, as you know thanks to yesterday’s blog. Although there were many more tourists, I don’t really mind.

    I would qualify the whole thing as exactly worth twenty euros!

    At some point my sisters decided to stay in shady spots as me mum and dad went to a further part. This led to more photos of just us three.

    I really am the best daughter.

    At one moment, Tate felt sick and so we all stopped and waited, Allegra and I took selfies and changed pose each time, but disaster nearly struck when I turned to kiss her cheek and she turned to pretend to bite me at the same time.

    We stared dumbly at one another for a moment, thankful to have dodged that bullet, before bursting into laughter.

    Fun times!

    After the temple, we made our way back down the hill, and followed our exact path to find my gorgeous skirt!

    And I bought it!!

    It is the most amazing piece of clothing I have ever worn I love it more than I love burnt toast.

    After that, we walked back to the car, hopped in, and made our way to our next destination: a bakery!

    The bakery was hard to locate but the food (aka a cheese pastry) was scrumptious! And we made our way to our next destination, aka, a beach!

    We wanted to fulfill Tate’s dreams of jet skiing, but she was not allowed to drive one since she is not 18. So we ummd and ahhd and eventually I made us all do it. The guy said, “when you’re out there, I can’t see who’s driving.” So I don’t think he cared. And Lily promised to let Tate drive, so that left me with Allegra.

    What was it I said about retribution earlier?

    We did lie and tell them I’m 18, but, well, two months off won’t make a difference right?

    So after a trial period where I kept pulling left on accident and almost flipping us, I managed to figure out how to go straight and, with Allegra’s arms wrapped tight around my waist, I put on full speed. I don’t know how fast a rental jet ski can go, but heckity darn did it feel fast! Allegra was screaming in my ear (she and Lily aren’t so much adrenaline junkies like me and Tate), but I had the controls so who could slow me down!

    I didn’t realise I could have seen how fast I could go, so I will never know. Tate said her max speed when she went fast as she dared was thirty km an hour or so, but it felt much faster compared to the fifty an hour I do on my scooter.

    Who knows?

    It was awesomely fun. I couldn’t keep the carefree laugh from my face as I sped at a high speed through the waves and although I kept stopping really badly and jerking us both forward, slamming us into the handle, I felt like a pro.

    At one point, I spotted some waves that looked fun, so I drove off, full throttle, and Allegra has me in a death grip. and we’re both screaming, and the wind is in our hair and the salt water is on our face and the air is fresh and I feel weightless because Allegra’s not holding on to me anymore-

    Oh hot damn Allegra’s gone!

    She slipped off at a moment of bumpiness and just flipped straight into the water. Panicked, like any, uh, responsible big sister would be, I forgot how to turn off the damn jet ski (there is literally a bright red button) so I just yanked on the cord that is attached to me, which stops the jet ski if I ever fell off. I desperately look around, I hear Allegra going “ow, ow, it hurts!” but I can’t see her, and I worry because I know she hates the deep water, and then she’s behind me and I can’t figure out how to reattach the cord to start the jet ski and I call out that I’m coming and thank god I finally manage and she climbs back on-

    She’s fine.

    She told a riveting story of her grip on my life jacket slipping and then she flips over and she’s cartwheeling while she’s deep underwater and she can see the surface but she has to swim up and she has whiplash and her ribs hurt-

    I felt so bad. I turned on the jet ski and went full speed again.

    To be fair, Allegra doesn’t really mind. She’s not terrified, she’s just worried.

    I convinced Allegra to drive for a minute at the end of our session. She was going very slowly (5km an hour) and was screaming; it was hilarious. When we got out of the vicinity of our sisters (they automatically block the speed when you get too close) and the jet skis speed up, she went faster; it’s much less worrying being in the front, I can confirm.

    But the time came for us to go in, the guy laughed because I tossed off Allegra (I did promise retribution did I not?).

    We hopped off in great joy, laughing and telling the story to the parents and sisters, who had not seen Allegra fall. We were all high on adrenaline, and very shaky, and my arms hurt because at that speed and with waves, it was a struggle to maintain a grip on the handle and hold Allegra’s weight and not let us slide backwards so I was permanently flexed.

    We also learnt that Lily hated it and never wants to do it again. Tate and I can’t wait, Allegra has mixed feelings.

    But Lily was really feeling very unwell and says she almost had panic attacks when Tate was driving. The poor chap.

    We drove on our merry way home, happy to have fulfilled tate’s dreams, chattering about how I tossed Allegra into the waves, and how Tate loved to drive, and we were still all feeling very weird and energy-less, so we stopped at a nearby restaurant to get some sugary drinks.

    Mum calls it “some guy’s meat cabin in the woods”. She’s not wrong.

    What kind of self respecting place doesn’t sell sprite?

    I asked this aloud, and dad actually answered and explained the Pepsi v Coke deal thing. Very interesting. So I had a zero sugar 7 up. They didn’t have regular sugar, to my chagrin.

    My sisters, bar Lily, got very sugary milkshakes. My teeth rot just thinking about them; I don’t love ultra sweet things. But they seemed fairly happy.

    We then drove home, looking very disheveled from our sweat inducing walk and then our energy depleting jet ski. As soon as we got home I dove into the pool to just feel weightless; it was great. Allegra preferred to lie in the sun to calm herself down; when her adrenaline crashed she cried a little, from the shock of it all I think. Tate joined Allegra, and Lily joined me.

    After swimming, I finally finished up my blog from yesterday, and then showered, singing along to the boppingest of tunes.

    We chilled for ages, Lily and I watched an f1 race from the beginning of the season, and then it was dinner time!

    We had some pizza found in the freezer, and toasties!

    As Tate and I made our toasties slash simply toast in my case, many a funny moment was had. First, I timed my toast, and indeed, on level 2, not accounting for human error and how badly I jumped when it popped, it was 2 mins 3 seconds. So, take that stubborn dad!

    Second, Tate had one last slice of cheese, the plasticky, melt on a burger type. She asked if she could slap me with it, I readily agreed. She wanted to hit my hand, but missed and dropped it on the floor. She then washed it under a tap (who washes cheese?) and hit me in the face with it. The cheese, not the tap. It was ultimately unsatisfying, and likely unsanitary, so she washed it again, and then proceeded to try and wring the water out of the slice of cheese.

    It was so funny.

    She then turned to the toastie machine, and asked, “are you sizzlin’ dog?” And it was just tooooo funny.

    Outside, there was a stray cat that looked fairly hungry. When we went out, the cat meowed at Tate, who would, in all seriousness, pterodactyl screech back. Another miaow, another screech. And so on and so forth. Lily and I laughed endlessly.

    Mum decided to feed the cat, so made a weetabix/greek yoghurt/some milk mix, which the cat ate some of, and then left. Maybe he was disgusted. My sisters weren’t. Allegra kept pretending to pick up the food and eat it. She said it would be her desert instead of biscuit time. It was absolutely hilarious.

    Anyway, at biscuit time, the Legrechaun went to get biscuits, and dad shocked us all by saying that Taylor’s last two concerts were in Toronto then Vancouver, TV for Taylor’s Version. I was so flabbergasted (what an amazing word) that he knew this.

    Dad is a true fan.

    Mum was sulking hilariously because she wanted to take a picture, but I kept posing, and mum didn’t want that, so she would put down her phone, then pick it up quick and I would pose quick and she would put down her phone again. In the end, I dramatically pretended to weep upon the table, and unbeknownst to me, the photo was taken then. Treachery.

    To end the day, Lily showed us the hilarious Instagram reel that we all love, an edited clip from Beauty and the Beast, which I will add to the photos (tomorrow). It was so funny, and everytime Maurice danced, we all imitated it. My parents watched it, dad laughed a little, but mum questioned our sanity.

    And after moving inside to write the blog or rewatch our concert videos in Tate’s case, that was it!

    And so this is where we pause our trek up Mount Olympus, folks.
    Bye family!!! 🤟
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  • “Take my horse to the Old Town Rhodes”

    August 5 in Greece ⋅ 🌙 25 °C

    Welcome one, welcome all, back to Mount Olympus, may you catch the goats that roam freely through life’s path!

    I realise with a heavy heart that this is going to be one of the last times that I write these words; we’re nearing the end, we’re almost at the top of Mount Olympus. And this is the longest blog I’ve ever written, so I have gotten attached to the opening line :(

    But anyway!

    Wake up was certainly something this morning. I won’t bore you with details, though. In any case, although by rights it should have left me disgruntled, I was as joyous and energetic as ever.

    It was ridiculously too early though.

    So I got up and dressed and sat on the sofa, and just read on my kindle until I heard movement upstairs, and dad came down and seemed very surprised to see me sitting there.

    He then sent me upstairs to lie with mum instead of being on my lonesome, which was chill, mum read the blogs and such.

    But then dad came back with breakfast in bed for the two of them, so I helped mum try and upload photos for dad’s blog from yesterday. The wifi wasn’t working very well, so mum very solemnly turned to dad and said, “the internet is poopeh” as Jamie Tartt from Ted Lasso would say it.

    We laughed!

    I assume dad was reading my blog as well, since he turned to me and said, “it’s not that I’m a fan of Taylor Swift, it’s that I’m a fan of you, and I remember things you say.”

    I was very confused as to why he said this before I realised he is probably talking about the Toronto Vancouver TV thing (which tbh even I had forgotten; it was over six months ago).

    That’s what they all say, dad. Also, that was actually so nice hihi dad is my biggest fan.

    But despite his claims to not be a swiftie, when I said mum was a weird woman, dad softly sang, “there’s nothing like a weirddddd woman” (which is ofc originally mad woman, but dad knows this).

    The time came to wake up my sisters, I decided to get retribution for all the times morning people had no respect, so yes, Lily was woken up with a song and dance.

    She made her peace with it.

    We all got ready to go, and damn did my muscles (pronounced “moo-sclays” for the fun of it- you can thank Tate) hurt from the jet ski, it’s like I did bicep curls or something. Not that I’ve ever done bicep curls, so I would not know, but this is how I imagine it feels

    Since we weren’t going to be swimming and we were going to take photos in the Rhodes Photo Booth, we did put extra time into picking clothes and getting ready, much to the parents’ annoyance.

    I was also really sad because the top that I had my heart set on wearing, mum’s flowy black off the shoulder one, was just taken out of the wash!

    So I hung it up on a chair in the sun and basically desperately hoped it would dry. Because it would go perfectly with my most amazing awesome gorgeous new skirt!

    The time came to leave, it was still soggy a little, so I decided to take it with me and change in the car if it dried.

    In the car, since we were going to Old Town Rhodes, there was really only one song we could possibly play.

    Old Town Road by Lil Nas X of course!

    Of course we had to sing it, “Yeahhh, I’m gonna take my horse to the Old Town Rhodes” because we’re just sooo funny and original like that. No one saw this coming.

    And I get to name my blog a road pun like dad does! Yayyyy!

    After Old Town Road, we let Spotify radio play and pick the music, and it was a random collection of songs that was also decidedly bopping. It went from more Lil Nas X to Starships to Thank U, Next, to Attention to Galway Girl to Umbrella (Lily and I of course then talked about Tom Holland’s lip sync battle, the best one out there) to 24k Magic (Zendaya’s lil sync battle, what a coincidence) to many many more.

    It was a very very bopping car ride to be sure.

    We made it to the car park, my top was thankfully dry, and then followed Lily who was expertly directing us to the Photo Booth! When we had navigated the hordes of people calling us into their restaurant, we finally made it, and there was no queue!

    It was so fun, I love Photo Booths, it’s just more fun than a photo on a phone, even if you have to pay for them and get them printed out. The devil works hard but capitalism works harder.

    We hit some cool poses, but the machine was very quick and we hadn’t planned anything and during our sister photo, Lily called out “Queen Pose!”

    Not a one of us knew what she meant. Do we wave slowly? Do we pretend to wear a crown? Do we lie dead in a coffin? Haha too soon? Anyway.

    Lily put her hands under her chin, made me do the same on top of her, Leg sort of had time to get the memo in those three seconds but Tate was so confused. So was I.

    When we left the Photo Booth, the one thought on my mind was, “Will I ever know how that is a Queen Pose?”

    I bet you’re thinking the same. Well you may find out later in the blog! (Subtle foreshadowing) (very subtle) (hard to pick up).

    After that, we had no real plans except buy souvenirs for friends etc. Mum wanted to buy many evil eye stuff, including one for mine and Lily’s new apartment, even though we secretly and not secretly find them weird.

    In one shop, Lily moved to let some woman pass, the woman smiled to thank her and put her hand on Lily’s shoulder.

    This started a long lecture (to me, not the woman, for some reason) about non-consensual touching and how it’s a problem. Which I suppose is true.

    The highlight of the lecture was, “there are some autistic people who actually can’t stand people touching them- I’m not one of them, I’m just a wanker, but still.”

    Ah, good times.

    After purchasing souvenirs, we wandered further, and it was fast approaching lunch time, so we wandered out of Old Town Rhodes into, idk, new town Rhodes? Town Rhodes? And looked for some lunch.

    We found a corner shop selling pastries, and I just about jumped for joy when I saw a potato pastry, something that I ate one time in Lipsi and haven’t found again. It’s so delicious!

    We also found a Sephora, which has been called “really beautiful” so even though we had little interest, Lily and I went in.

    Me mainly to spray some tester perfume on, but still.

    The Sephora was wildly disappointing in that it looked like every other Sephora.

    But there was a vanilla perfume (my favourite perfume ever even though I have never owned one much to my chagrin) so all was well, anddd, as we left I noticed they put the pictures of Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Timothée Chalamet right next to each other, so. If you know you know. Sephora is a jegulus fan confirmed.

    Anyway.

    We made it to our next destination, a “9d cinema experience”. I was pretty sure it would just be 4d, and they were just calling it 9d to sound cooler, and guess what, I was right.

    Dad kept making jokes that you can find on his blog that I won’t write in mine since I am just toooo ladylike. The ladiest. No one is ladier than me.

    It was kind of fun though, we got a history of Rhodes (which I did already know but still) and the chairs moved, and there were bubbles and smoke and rain and stuff brushing against your legs.

    It was fun!

    There was a second part that was more for kids, where it was like you were a horse race with different Roman gods (we’re in Greece so I was a little confused). I found it kinda fun and funny, but apparently it made dad feel queasy, hilariously.

    Afterwards, we decided to start moseying back to our car. Mum bought some souvenirs, I fruitlessly dreamed of getting a henna tattoo, and then we stopped to look at a place selling bracelets and bangles and rings etc.

    The lady who owned it was Australian, and very good at her job, she made us all try on a bunch of stuff that were kind of cool. She was good fun though, I appreciate her dedication. In the end, Lily got a ring (that she is ridiculously happy about; her dream is to have “Phoebe Buffay hands” apparently and Allegra got a bangle.

    Lily kept going on an about her ring, which I found, well, let’s just say it was a bit of a hypocritudity, as they say. If I had bought that ring mayhap two years ago, when it was my style of ring, Lily would have hated it, and told me so.

    It just goes to show I am ahead of my time, not weird, as people say all the time.

    Then we sat down in a chill place to get drinks, and I said to dad, “I’ll get a sprite or an appletini” like JD got all the time in Scrubs. Dad told me to not get an appletini because I won’t like it, which I took to mean, “get a sprite”. Because that was the other option.

    And yet, when I then ordered a sprite, Dad gave me the most disappointed, derisive look that I have ever received. Which was ridiculous.

    Lily got a Rainbow.

    When the drinks came, though, I was tragically disappointed because it wasn’t a Sprite, it was a 7up. Which are not the same. It said sprite on the menu! Why wouldn’t they just put 7up!

    It ruined my entire day. I was miserable. People laughed at me. I am addicted to sprites.

    And what was worse, it wasn’t in a can! My collection has not advanced :(

    Anyway, I made my peace with it when Lily gave me the parrot that she had with her drink and I could put it in my hair and it just went so well with my skirt that I *had* to keep it.

    But I was secretly annoyed still, and so when an argument was struck up between Lily and Mum about f1 and biofuel and trustworthy sources, I jumped to defend Lily because I do love a good argument.

    Anyway, we then got up to leave, and on the way home, it seems mum also loves a good argument, because she started a “debate” about “is recycling greenwashing”, which, no, it’s not, but mum thinks it sort of is.

    Anyway.

    Dad then said I was his favourite because I partook in the debate, unlike my other sisters.

    On the drive home, we started the music with “Chunky” by Bruno Mars and then let Spotify radio do the work. It was bopping.

    We did make a quick stop at a supermarket, I didn’t go in though, and Lily bought a gross drink that no one liked.

    As we finished our drive home, Beyoncé’s “Love on top” started playing, and we all gave it a valiant try. But damn, she can hit those high notes.

    We certainly couldn’t!

    Upon our arrival at our home, some went into the pool, I preferred to sit inside with mum and read.

    At this point, mum cracked open the chocolate biscuits for biscuit time, and we had two each secretly.

    Lily then came inside and I watched half of an F1 race with her. Mum was making her famous Greek rice dish, delicious, and playing her bopping tunes.

    At the time of dinner, we laughed and joked, I even made Allegra laugh, which is close enough to a Dad laugh. She even said, “not bad Rumple”. Oh yes, not bad.

    Although she was also mean to me at some point, because I was very loudly giving my thoughts on a matter. Since her chair was near the pool, I pretended to push her in like mum kept wanting to do, and she absolutely shrieked like a baby.

    PTSD from the last time I lost her to a body of water? Who knows!

    Biscuit time came around, and Allegra was just scandalized that someone had eaten four chocolate biscuits from the previously unopened pack. She launched an investigation as I struggled to keep a straight face. The best way to avoid suspicion was to join the investigators, so I did.

    I watched as Olivia denied it all, so did dad and Lily, before Allegra turned to mum.

    Knowing the jig was up, I winced when mum confessed. But then, in her confusion, mum said “me and Lily ate some earlier”.

    In horror, Lily jerked upright in her seat, words bubbling to her lips in her defense, but I was just laughing so hard.

    It then came out that it was me.

    As we ate our biscuits, Lily asked me how I ate mine. I gave a demonstration; Allegra and Olivia followed suit with their way.

    Biscuit eating is a very serious affair.

    We then asked Lily how she ate hers, and she demonstrated, and it was so funny that I had to film and make her do it again. It was sooo funny. She looks like a chipmunk.

    The video can be found in this blog.

    Finally, the Photo Booth pictures were passed around, and the three of us younger sisters finally asked the burning question that I’m sure is the only reason you’ve made it this far into the blog.

    “How is that a Queen Pose?”

    Through laughter and accusations, Lily managed to explain that she meant Queen, the band, and that it had made perfect sense to her at the time. One of their album covers, when they’re sort of one head above the other.

    Anyway.

    And in the final photo, I had said, “finger guns!” And looking at this photo now, a conversation was sparked about how many fingers are in the finger gun.

    I am a firm believer that “finger guns” is when you have only one finger being the gun, and that “guns with your fingers” is two. Because finger guns is not actually pretending to be a gun.

    My sisters disagree.

    Anyway.

    We retreated inside, I began to write the blog and got one of my sisters to send me a screen recording of “woah slow down, Maurice” (the hilarious video I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, it has been added to said blog if you are curious), but then mum said, “who wants to watch 27 dresses?”

    This was a romcom that Tate and I had been talking about a day or two ago.

    So I put down my phone and watched it with mum and Tate.

    Dad was next to us, of course, he tried to pretend that he wasn’t interested, but his phone kept turning off, he laughed, and he was just definitely invested.

    Tate and I loved it, the main guy is very good looking and we also laughed at many a moment. I believe that if we just made more romcoms, we would be one step closer to world peace.

    Sadly, that absolute classic came to an end (a happy ending ofc), and it was time for bed. I had very little energy for blog writing, so I only made it five paragraphs in before I turned off the phone and went to bed (it was after midnight).

    And so this is where we pause our trek up Mount Olympus, folks.
    Bye family!!! ✌️
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  • We laughed some more

    August 6 in Greece ⋅ 🌙 24 °C

    Welcome one, welcome all, back to Mount Olympus, may you catch the goats that roam freely through life’s path!

    Friends, family, people who fall somewhere else in the spectrum of life, we’ve made it to the top.

    And damn, the view is nice from up here.

    There’s something about a last day that throws you off. It doesn’t feel like it’s over but there is simultaneously a sense of finality, and you realise that you need to make the most of your time only when you have so little left.

    Anyway. This blog is featuring my fav little baby teeny weeny sister Allegra.

    I woke up today, from a very nice dream that I don’t remember, I only know that the king from Hamilton featured in it. Aka Jonathan Groff.

    (On another note I feel like I should mention, in a previous blog I said that I only got three songs into Hamilton before I didn’t know it by heart, and Lily took that to mean, I only know three songs by heart. This is not true, I know many more, I just don’t love the fourth song (The Story Of Tonight) so I often skip it and so I don’t know it by heart. Anyway.)

    But it was so light in my room that there was little way that I was going back to sleep, so I decided to get up quietly, even though no one else was awake.

    Now, fun fact about me, I love to dance sometimes, it makes me really happy, and I like being happy. However, I don’t dance well, and am frequently told this, so I prefer to dance alone.

    Sooo, when I realised that no one was awake, so I thought, cha-ching!

    I truly recommend dancing alone to everyone. You will be a happier person if you just dance for two minutes before your day starts.

    Sadly, after mayhap 15 minutes, I heard a door handle, and I ran to a seat at the breakfast bar as if I had always been there.

    No one has known about my secret dancing until this day.

    Lily was indeed awake, and after expressing some disgruntlement at my having awoken her, she decided to make some “Greek coffee” for dad.

    I sat at the breakfast bar, giving helpful advice from my seat, which I’m sure Lily just absolutely adored, and I also provided the bopping tunes Calum Hood, of whom I have a s i g n e d CD of at home.

    Lily said that she was making coffee for dad, and by doing so she was becoming dad’s new favorite. She then went on to say that she found it hard to read dad’s blogs; I believe her exact words were “grade schooler”

    Of course I filed this away so that I could regain my spot (that is actually Allegra’s).

    Dad then got up soon after, and was indeed happy to see Lily making him coffee. However when Lily did fish for praise I casually bought up the fact that she compared his writing to that of a child.

    I like to think that my (legs$) spot is secured.

    Mum also woke up and the plan for today, our last hurrah, wasn’t too full on; indeed we were only going out after twelve, and so mum and dad got some work done while I wrote yesterday’s blog. This was accompanied by Charlie Puth since Calum’s album was finito (as my good friend Taylor Swift once said, “we declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist”).

    However mum immediately stole my (her) phone. Well, I like to think of it as *our* phone. So I was forced to read for about an hour instead of writing the blog.

    How tragique.

    No sooner had I regained the phone privileges than had Allegra emerged from her slumberpants fresh faced and beautiful. Full of derision, she glanced around at us all on the sofa, took one look at the fan, and stated generally “I think you’re overreacting with the fan, it’s not that hot”.

    This is, in my (stupid) opinion, very easy to say for someone who just emerged from an air conditioned room. In any case, I gave the benefit of the doubt, and said (stupidly) “it’s not overreacting because it’s hot and it’s only one fan”.

    To which Allegra gracefully said “shut the f**k up, I’m not talking to you.”

    I would like to reiterate that she stated it generally, to the entire room, and that I was the one using the fan (no I wasn’t) so, you know, I was *forced* to concede to her superior understanding *in sarcastic tone*.

    Fun times?

    We then gallivanted off to get ready. This consisted of waking Tate, getting dressed and doing makeup and the like.

    I was torn, since I wanted to wear my fantastic irrevocably swaggy af new skirt (shoutout to the family members who complimented it you guys are real ones), especially since it sort of matches the butterfly vibes (I forgot to mention we are going to butt (erfly) valley today), but Lily and I share a disdain for wearing the same outfit two days in a row.

    My love for my skirt was too strong; I decided to change top and accessorize differently to give some novelty.

    And I slayed, so, worth it!

    (Allegra has now left; we can breathe easy)

    Tate played her k pop music the entire time we were getting ready, by the way.

    We finally were ready to leave, and we ate outside, to immediately be terrorized by some sort of giant mantis? Stick insect? Grasshopper? That was sitting calmly on the glass partition that is outside. It was really massive, maybe the size of my hands, and hot damn was it strange.

    We inched past it, stuck to the wall so that we wouldn’t bother it into jumping on one of us or at least to be far from range if it ever felt inclined to take the leap™️.

    Finally in the safety of our car, we drove out of the driveway, furthered our love-hate relationship with remote control gates (why does it only close half the time? Why do we accidentally open another gate?) and drive off.

    The music choice today was a family blend, so all of our songs, and sadly we did not hear a Tate song in the drive. Olivia was too annoyed by this, in my humble opinion, may I remind you that we listened to her music the whole time we were getting ready, which would, based on my lack of understanding of time, equate to the duration of the drive.

    We made it to the butterfly valley in peace, hopped out the car, walked along, and I was ahead next to Lily. The two of us saw a sign, “entrance for butterflies”. I chuckled and turned to Lily, “Entrance for butterflies? Where do the humans go?”.

    For some reason unknown to me, for that was top tier comedy, high brow at its finest, Lily was unimpressed. I then told her that I would be waiting for the family to catch up so I could tell the joke again.

    So I nonchalantly sidled (yes, I sidled) up to my parents, and said “haha, entrance for butterflies? Where do the humans go?”

    Dad laughed, pointed, and then chuckled. He truly understands high brow humour. I felt self important for sure.

    Until Lily informed dad that I had told this joke before. But still.

    Upon arrival at butterfly valley, there was a restaurant. Since we were all hungry, we found this to be the height of convenience!

    I had a tasty vegetarian burger; a famous Greek delicacy.

    I guess my joke in the first blog about our burger tasting tour is finally making sense?

    I was however, sad that they did not have sprite :(

    We had many a fun conversation, mainly based on f1 and how it’s an elitist sport. We mentioned Hamilton, who was the best, but didn’t have an easy start into it, not being a nepo baby, unlike Max, although we agreed that Max had talent also. Lily then brought up Esteban Ocon, and how he didn’t have an easy start in f1, and he had to make sacrifices.

    Mum then sighed in a melancholy way, and said in a posh British accent, “Oh, Esteban wasn’t allowed to ride his horse for two years!” And we all laughed, it was hilarious.

    When Lily started arguing her points a little harder, Allegra took this as an argument, intervened, and loudly told us to stop arguing, we said, “we’re not arguing, you are” and Allegra said, “oh yeah, I’m the one making stupid points.”

    No one argued with that. We laughed some more.

    Now the thing about the restaurant is that you have to walk through it to get to the butterfly valley. So we saw a lot of people, enjoyed people watching, and then we saw a guy who looks so similar to John B, from outer banks, it was so weird. And then we saw someone who looked like Olivia! She had the messy bun, the red bikini, the purple t shirt, the dark blue shorts! Twas crazy!

    But soon lunch was over and we made our way to see some butterflies, stopping of course to take a photo and pretend we were butterflies.

    It was a very nice walk, up a river bank with wooden fences in the forest. We took many a nice picture, and of course, we saw some butterflies, which actually freaked me and Allegra out quite a bit when they were all congregated on a rock or some bark.

    It was overall a really nice time, and of course we did a fit check because our fits were fire!

    On the way down, Lily and I bought a magnet for our new flat, and I think Mum put it right when she said “now you just need a fridge!”

    Honestly mum was on a roll today.

    We made our way back down to the restaurant to get some ice cream, and sitting at the tables we people watched some more, saw John B, and saw someone who looked like Stan Lee!

    What is this, the lookalike convention?

    Turns out no, little mix up there on my part , it was the German convention. Indeed, I said, “are you going to get all our ice creams and just whip out your four hands to carry them back?” And dad replied, “four Hans, it’s like a German convention!”

    So.

    But my brownie ice cream was delectable even though there is something about eating ice cream out of a pot that is just not as tasty as out of a cone or a glass? Are we ice cream snobs or is this relatable?

    On the way back to the car, dad stopped and took a picture of the number plate of a car, which was “poo”. What maturity shown from that adult man. However, this lead Lily to believe that this was our car, so she almost got in. It was funny.

    In our actual car, we drove home and stopped at a supermarket, and, opposite of yesterday, I got out and my sisters stayed in the car. This would turn out to be a rookie mistake on their part since they boiled alive and didn’t think they should open a door.

    We made it home for the last time, and again I elected to chill and do nothing (this includes fixing yesterday’s blog) while my sisters hung out in the pool. But I was not aware that we had to get ready because we would be leaving soon to go out to dinner, so it was a real struggle to find some clothes to wear that were different.

    Thank god for Lily, who gave me the shirt off her back- literally. And after some different accessorizing I was a whole new woman.

    We all looked way too good for the small town restaurant we were eating at- or so we thought.

    Because after avoiding the last place we ate which wasn’t delicious and was qui tee expensive, we sat down at a nice looking place that was a family owned restaurant, and god damn, we are somewhat experienced in Greek food, and we have said that this is the best restaurant we have eaten at.

    I would even say that I have become a connaisseur of Greek Salads, and this one had the best dressing I have ever tasted in my entire life. I guess “first in, best dressed” does not apply to salad!

    We had some fun taking some photos, and then taking some photos that matched the ones we took on our last night last year. I coached mum in my patented photo pose when you already know it won’t be the best angle; raise the shoulder slightly forward, look over, and soft smile. Mum sort of nailed it, honestly.

    We also had some… less savoury conversations, including “I’m ready enjoying Granny’s omelet” “that’s what grandpa said”.

    We did laugh a lot though. That seems to be a theme.

    We decided that we had to try desert from this place that was so good at making food. They had orange pie or marmalade pie. That seemed like the same thing to me, but I made my peace with it.

    It was the most delicious cake I have ever eaten in my life. I do my what they put in their food, but I’m starting to think it might be drugs.

    Dad went in to pay, and he struck up a conversation as the five of us watched him from our table and laughed, making up wild stories about what they could possibly be talking about. At one point we thought that dad was gonna run away with them and leave his family behind, just for the food, which, you know, is understandable.

    15 minutes later, he came back, and turns out he was just saying that we loved the foods that it was our favourite food, and the guy brought out his sister who made the cake, and they offered to give us cooking lessons and we were so sad that we hadn’t gone here on the first night instead of to the place next door, and we could have had those cooking lessons!

    We made our peace with it, and have decided to come back next year just for the lessons.

    Back home, we had our final biscuit time, just hanging out, and I started writing this blog. We did our usual: name the three best things about this holiday, but we were all quite tired, so soon enough, it was time for our last night in Greece.

    Allegra and I stayed up a little, and she helped me write the beginning of this blog, at times interjecting to add her own thoughts and opinions. But she did leave me, so J stayed up a little longer to write, but my eyes were closing themselves, so I put down the phone for another day.

    And so this is where we pause our trek up Mount Olympus, folks.
    Bye family!!! ☝️
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  • Greecap: the Greequel

    August 8 in France ⋅ 🌙 28 °C

    Welcome one, welcome all, back to Mount Olympus, may you catch the goats that roam freely through life’s path!

    For the last time.

    Better get a-catchin’! Your time is running out… you know what they say about all the time in the world…

    Dad told me not to write a Greecap, as I so wittily named them last year, since I had already written a whole blog. I publicly agreed that this was for the best, but secretly I felt very left out.

    All of my secrets come out in this blog guys. It must be the false sense of distance created by a screen.

    So I decided to write one anyway! I could have done an airport day blog, but it was fairly chill as a whole and I am a very proud member of the Procrasti-nation so there is really only so much I can do.

    Welcome, to Greecap: the Greequel!

    (I just laughed for a minute over my top tier naming skills).

    It feels like an age since I woke up my sisters, singing “Ey, It’s The Holiday”, accompanied by Lil Nas X. Longer still since I laughed at the station name “Hoofddorp” in Amsterdam, despite the latter happening after the former.

    I suppose that’s a testament to my lack of comprehension of time- something that has been troubling me for a year. (Or more? Who knows, not me!)

    Amsterdam was awesome, I liked the concert honestly, but no one in that whole arena loved it as much as Tate did, which made it all worth it. The first of many family dance circles happened in Amsterdam, and it was a very peaceful place that I would like to live in someday, I think. However, of all the many things that I could list as the most memorable thing to come out of that trip, I would have to say, “Dyslexics, Nil” which is something we have used on the regular during this trip as soon as someone misspells or misreads something.

    Tis the small things really.

    Tate would disagree. For her it’s the big, Johan Cruyff Arena sized things.

    An Eight Minute Power Nap later, we were back in Paris, and with No Small Amount Of Difficulty, we made it to Greece one day later.

    I secretly love travel days.

    Santorini was sort of a fabulous mess. It was stereotypical towns, filled with activity and life, contrasted with empty lands, and then full beaches and rugged mountains. One might say it was Random But Decidedly Banging. This was the first time I had a Guest Star on my blog, and I love both of the guest starrers for their help.

    In all seriousness, I really did love Santorini and the quiet comfort of sitting on a rooftop as the sun sets, writing the blog and feeling the happiness that comes with the first biscuit times - now biscuit and beer - of the trip.

    And, as we all know, I Am A Very Delicate Noble Flower, (and a god teehee) so if I like something, it’s that it was good.

    Onto Naxos! (I feel like my Greecap: the Greequel is too long, but Once Again, I Am A God, at least I am in the world of my blog, so I can do what I like, and why ruin a good thing?)

    Naxos was a rather nice place, if the shared house was perturbing. I made my peace with it, and I lived visiting the first two temples of the trip (Apollo and Demeter). I wonder if I will ever come back, to Naxos, to Greece. Maybe in Five Years Time.

    Bros and foes, I am having a hard time adding some of these blog titles in understandable ways, so, let me pretend these ones were cleverly snuck in: This Is Grate! Modern Art. Cluck Cluck.

    I know, I know, no one is smarter and sneakier in their writing than me. No need to applaud. Oh, well, if you insist. I do love to take a bow.

    Anyway. I think I’ve gone mad.

    Onto Ikaria! Which I thought was spelled Icaria, but I guess not. The second guest star, and no one could Spot The Difference before it was too late. There’s no shame in that though, mum’s blog was hilarious, and honestly if I were reading someone’s blog and their mother wrote it one day, I don’t think I would ever dare to comment “hey is that your mum writing not you” if the thought even crossed my mind. So.

    But Ikaria was nice, I remember sleeping in the front room with Allegra, reading Only the Brave with her, and feeling like we were in Star Wars because of the lights through the window. I remember the turtle beach, and how dad knocked over a pile of pasta in a supermarket and said “Don’t Put This In The Blog” but of course I did, and of course, the loss of a limb found on the modern teenager.

    Oh yes. My phone. The “Crunch.” (that I didn’t hear) of its life leaving still echoes (metaphorically; I reiterate, I did not hear it) in my very soul.

    You win some, you lose some, I suppose.

    And then it was a Speed Run to Lipsi, which was a very nice island, the first and only where we didn’t have a car. I remember watching Hamilton, continuing that theme at the beach where we were Searchin For An Urchin, watching the Euro 2025, doing strange dances, Allegra’s love of Brioche Bread on the tourist boat, giant chess, and much more.

    I could list further things, of course, but you have read the blog already and so know it all, and as we all know, my blog is a paragon of Some Very Not Repetitive Journalism.

    Although I have made my peace with repeating myself. A Peace Treaty, If You Will, between my perfectionist self and my lazy self. The dichotomy of Ruby (Lily loves that word, even if she hates repetition).

    Onto Kalymnos! Where we were stalked by Allegra’s cousin, aka That DAMN GINGER BOY, where our house was so big that dad kept joking that he couldn’t see us, and where we got up to the see the sunrise that we were never gonna see. The sponges, dad’s driving, scuba diving…

    Also, another memorable moment was given to us by Allegra, not a day goes by when I haven’t wanted to say this to someone when they ask how far something is. Of course, I am talking about “280km, Off The Top Of My Head. Oh yes, when Allegra’s plane cleared the atmosphere.

    And of course, Kalymnos was the home of a feeling that happens each year.

    SALT AIR!!! AND THE RUST ON YOUR DOOR!!!

    That’s right, the moment when you can sing the song “august ” by Taylor Swift as loud as you can and just be really happy!!!

    And finally, the home of puns. The island of many paths, trails, I can’t think of another synonym, but you get the gist, Rhodes!!

    Or as I like to say, James Rhodes?

    You may be sprinking that these sprokes are not sprunny. Well, You May Be Sprite, You May Be Sprong, but we sprade them none the spress.

    (This is getting ridiculous, don’t worry, I am well aware. I have lost a lot of self respect).

    I think my favourite thing on this island was Kameiros, So Rachel Said To The Paleontologist (never not funny- thanks lil) as well as tossing Allegra off the jet ski and the moment of pure panic just thinking “Oh Hot Damn, Allegra’s Gone!” And of course, my amazing skirt was one of the best things to come out of this trip, eternal thanks to mum and dad for getting to for me.

    Of course, in terms of Rhodes puns, it would be remiss to not mention the main pun, the full circle moment, when Lil Nas X came back into play, as we gleefully sang “Take My Horse To The Old Town Rhodes” as we headed for Old Town Rhodes.

    It’s these bad comedy moments that I’ll miss.

    To be fair, bad comedy follows me wherever I go! Tis my specialty!

    And the final night was one of the best. Delicious food, lots of fun, and jokes. We laughed. And We Laughed Some More at biscuit and beer time.

    Oh my god I feel a weight has just been lifted off my shoulders at that last blog title making it in (well, except for “Extra Photos”- oh, would you look at that!). I regret my choice to do that. But, as per the Ruby Rule of Regret: will I regret it in five years? No, so it was worth it.

    In all seriousness, Greece was an amazing holiday and I ofc love spending time with my family, even if I would never be such a sook as to write it in the blog haha, good thing this is just in my inner thoughts.

    Oh no! My fingers have betrayed me!

    As I sit here, writing my blog, listening to Lost Americana on repeat, as Allegra reads and Olivia watches K pop and Lily watches F1, mum and dad working in sync, I feel very peaceful and strangely nostalgic, which I’m beginning to realise just means that I love life, and that I have many a memory worth keeping and holding close.

    In the fanfiction that I am currently reading (which is really good, I swear fanfic gets a bad rap (I myself used to think it was stupid) but some of the best books I’ve ever read are fanfics), a question that they keep asking, the central question of the book, is “what makes you happy?”, which has lead to me speculating this a lot.

    And I think this does.

    And so this is where we end our trek up Mount Olympus, folks.
    The world is our oyster. Go forth, children. Teehee.
    Bye family!!! 🫶
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    Trip end
    August 7, 2025